Dave2D - Windows Was The Problem All Along (Lenovo Legion Go Windows 11 vs. SteamOS)

I think this screenshot is pretty telling.

The battery life test is even more damning. SteamOS in some cases had more than 2x better battery life.
- Yeah you're right, I had mostly been looking at the difference between the steam deck and legion Go S on that chart and barely even noticed the difference between windows on the legion Go S there.
- Do we know if it's entirely coming from SteamOS? Iirc the advantages it had over Windows on the Steam Deck were not even anywhere remotely this pronounced.
Who would have predicted, a decade ago, that the path to the actual year of the linux desktop would be taken first through the linux handheld gaming PC?
... Also LoL at SpiderMan 2, the only one that does a single frame worse, which basically at this point is just a solid indicator that game is still unoptimized as all hell.
Old man Gabe has been playing the long game, for all these years.
Ex-MSFT employee on a mission to apparently save us all from MSFT this whole time hahaha
- It's not like all the alternatives to Linux aren't that good. Mac is a walled garden and Windows keeps introducing AI slop feature after AI slop feature that actually publishes your personal information
Interesting, I wonder if the games with a bigger improvement is more CPU bound than GPU bound
- My understanding is it's mostly just the advantage of not having windows running hogging resources, so it should be a bigger gain for CPU bound games.
  **Edit ** There can be performance gains from using vulkan over DirectX too, so there probably are GPU gains as well. It will depend on the game though
This screenshot is also slightly misleading since the color scheme suggests that 5 out of 5 games run better on SteamOS then on Windows. But if you check the numbers it is only 4 out of 5 games.
- By 1 fps. Could be the within the margin of error.
Without context that graph isn't brilliant because it depends on the hardware of the PC. Pretty much every game I run will be better on the steam deck than my PC because my PC is terrible.
- ...hence the context in the graph that points out it's on exact same hardware....
- These are both on the Lenovo Legion Go S. The significance here is that there's both official OEM windows and official OEM steamOS for this device.

Every laptop I've bought has come with Windows including gaming ones. Up to really powerful computers. Like having a 4080 in it or down to just integrated. I could be doing nothing and you'll hear the fan spin up hard on Windows.

On hardware with just integrated graphics, Windows just sucks compared to Linux. Fan spins up but you'll still get animation hitches as Windows background services are doing something. Switch to Linux and resource usage just matches up really well with what you know you've installed and set to run. Just whatever is popular: Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, Pop_OS, etc compared to consumer Windows editions.

Plus it's nice installing an OS and not having to go through pages of telemetry opt-outs, encouragement to buy O365, OneDrive, Copilot+, Gamepass, create online MS account, etc. Windows went from a relatively neutral marketplace, besides the bundled software, to a platform for marketing MS and other companies subscription services

Neutral base of fairly standardized open source Linux operating systems is going to show itself overtime as preferable as these controlled platforms get monetized harder. Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android are all in varying stages of being subscription and marketing data farms

BuT cAn iT rUn CoD/DeStiNy 2?
- Kernel-level anti-cheat can go fuck itself.
- You joke, but half of my Steam library is incompatible with Steam Deck. Like, I fucking hate Windows, but I'm stuck there for gaming, and I don't even play these multiplayer games. I'm talking Catherine, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Under Night In-Birth II… etc. Niche games all of them.

YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP

Hyped about the devices we're going to see over the next year or so. Should be just in time to replace my first release Steam Deck as a noticeable upgrade.

I know, right?!
I just hope that there’s enough movement in the market to not just push more developers to support Linux as a platform, but to disincentivise them from punishing players through lack of anti-cheat / incompatible DRM.
Also, low-key hyped for the (hopefully) eventual Steam Deck 2 once the market has re-aligned to a ‘new normal’ and Valve can once again push the envelope further!
- I hope so too, but I don't think a shift that big is coming any time soon.
  Linux users are still a tiny proportion of the online player base. Steam Deck sales are negligible compared to Switch or console sales.
  I hope it happens eventually,but I think it's going to take much longer for AAA gaming corps to take Linux seriously.
I only got my deck last year, so it think I can hold off until the Deckard. Kind of okay paying 3 times as much for VR to not have it tied to Meta/Zuck.
Had my deck preordered and am still using it regularly. I'm really happy with it and just recommended the oled to a friend. Just out of curiosity: why would you want to upgrade it already?
- Mine was a pre-release preorder as well.
  I wouldn't upgrade it now. Knowing me, I'll probably end up waiting till 2027 and buy a secondhand device from 2026.
  I mostly play indie 2D games, so games I want still work fine. The revised Deck has a bunch of improvements I would have liked (OLED, WiFi 6, etc). If there are enough improvements in usability (screen, WiFi, size, battery, hardware power), then I'll upgrade and give the old device to my kids (who currently use it for more than 75% of the time anyway).

Why isn’t this the case with the ROG Ally? Users are reporting negligible to no change on Reddit.

That's still good isn't it? At worst you're getting on par performance, at best it's better
- Not worth going through the trouble of installing this unless you only have games on Steam. The best thing about the Ally is the compatibility thanks to windows. If it offered better performance, then it would be worth dual booting it just to play steam games.